New Democracy leader's wife listed in "Paradise Papers"

The name of the wife of New Democracy President Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Mareva Grabovski is listed in the Paradise Papers as a 50% offshore company shareholder.

In particular, as the newspaper "Ethnos" writes, Mereva Mitsotaki appears in the data of the Paradise Papers as a shareholder of 50% offshore company based in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. The offshore company was a fund manager for a firm based in the British Virgin Islands.

Ms Grabovski, in a lengthy response to the newspaper "Ethnos", argues that "I was then separated from my husband, a fact that was not disputed and has been decided upon by the competent authorities, so any hint in this direction lacks purpose ".

Eternia Capital Management was founded by the Appleby law firm in March 2010 in the Cayman Islands. The shareholders of Eternia Capital Management were Mareva Grabovski - Mitsotakis and a long-time acquaintance from the time she worked at Deutsche Bank.

As "Ethnos" states, under the UN Convention against Corruption, "politically exposed persons" means natural persons to whom a major public function has been or has been entrusted, their close associates and persons known to be their associates.

Ms Grabovski clarifies concerning Eternia Capital Management, which she founded in 2010, that "I have never hidden my absolutely legitimate professional activity in the financial sector, this is also mentioned in my CV which is accessible to everyone."

She also added that "I did not have the right to sign [documents], nor did I participate in the board of directors."

And she continues: "This company was the investment manager in a foreign fund, with foreign banks and foreign institutional investors as investors. The fund was under the oversight of the world-renowned and prestigious banking firm Goldman Sachs and had as a co-operating bank the world-renowned and prestigious investment bank JP Morgan London. The institutional role of these two world-class bank ensured full compliance with the transparency rules and all necessary Anti Money Laundering (AML) controls"

As Ms Grabovski noted "In the two-year period in which the fund was active (June 2010 - June 2012) due to the financial crisis, it had a negative return and due to its loss-making operation was closed and the money was returned to investors by JP Morgan London".